A hard disk drive (HDD) is widely used in the field of computer systems, and the demand for a storage system capable of handling a large amount of data in shorter time is still growing. To achieve such a high performance storage system, several approaches are proposed across different technical fields such as mechanical features including a smarter magnetic head or actuator and algorithms for faster data access
The effective approach for achieving high-speed disk access may depend on a manner of data access, i.e., random access or sequential access. For example, a split-actuator drive is known to achieve higher speed random access using two independent actuator assemblies. In general, a single actuator drive has an actuator coupled to a plurality of arms and heads, and reads/writes data from/to a plurality of disks via the heads of the single actuator. The split actuator drive has two or more independent actuators, each of which may control the arms to access the disks in parallel, which may improve read/write transfer rates, especially when random access happens across the disks. On the other hand, there is a need for a disk drive that achieves higher data transfer rates in both random and sequential access.